Category Archives: Food

Creamy Potato Dill Soup

21 Thursday Feb 2019

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Saturday night my husband and I went out to a nice local restaurant, which is known for its seafood, to celebrate Valentine’s Day. I already knew I was going to stray from my vegan diet for the night. I love seafood and I told myself that every once in a while it is perfectly okay to fall off the diet, especially for special occasions like celebrating love LOL!

I ended up choosing a shrimp and scallops dish with sautéed veggies, mashed potatoes and a creamy potato dill soup. I had never had this kind of soup and was pretty excited to try it as I recently discovered how much I actually love dill. It’s become somewhat of an obsession and if you haven’t tried Dill and Black Pepper Popcorn, hit me up and I will hook you up!! I was nervous about indulging in this soup because I wasn’t sure how my stomach would handle the cream in the soup and the milk and butter in the potatoes. When my soup came I dug right in. OH MY! It was so delicious, I was in heaven and I am ecstatic to say that I had zero tummy problems the next day!!! This vegan diet is doing wonders for me!

I knew right away that I HAD to learn how to make this at home, but a vegan version. A day or two later I grabbed the almond milk soup base from my pantry to see how I could use it. I ended up grabbing it two weeks ago from the grocery store in the off-chance I might need or want it for a new recipe. Low and behold, right there on the carton is a recipe for creamy potato soup! I also decided to use my handy-dandy tool, Pinterest to see how adding a dill component would work. I didn’t look too long though, instead I just looked through my cabinets and came up with something I thought might work. Enter……my Young Living Dill Vitality essential oil. *insert happy dance here*

Now here is the part where I wanted to say how amazing my soup was and how jazzed I felt to have recreated such a yummy dish. I really wanted to do that. But I’m not going to and this is why…I’m not a chef. Nor am I a food blogger or recipe developer. I’m not even a veteran vegan. I am just an okay home cook trying out a vegan diet to improve health and wellness and who really enjoys cooking meals for my family, when they actually eat them, and who loves the satisfaction of making things from scratch. Not only that, but I don’t want to mislead you or be fake. I had a real life experience and I want to share that not some glorified version of what happened in hopes you will follow me. I still hope you’ll love what I’ve provided you, but I what I really hope is that you’ll appreciate the honesty and maybe even help me out with some tips to make my dream soup even dreamier!!

With that said, my soup came out okay. Not amazing, but okay. Even though I simmered the potatoes for the time suggested, they weren’t cooked all the way through and didn’t mash all the way. I didn’t mind them not being completely mashed because I like a chunkier soup but it ended up being a thinner soup than I was anticipating and I think that’s why. I did try to thicken it up with some cornstarch and it helped a little but still not creamy like I was wanting. As far as spices and herbs, the dill was PERFECT in my opinion. However, I had too much garlic and it made the soup a little darker and heavier than I had anticipated. I didn’t think my garlic press was working so I dumped some garlic powder in. For whatever reason I retried the press AFTER I already dumped in garlic powder and it worked so…I added the minced garlic in as well. I should have left it out but I always hear, “you can never have too much garlic”. Apparently that isn’t always true. My soup could have had a lighter, brighter taste with a thicker, creamier texture but I am so happy I experimented with it!

I want to touch on Dill Vitality essential oil from Young Living. I ordered it for a popcorn recipe and I was somewhat skeptical about it but it was easy enough to make so I went for it. From the moment I opened the bottle I was hooked. Just smelling it makes me happy!! To my surprise Dill Vitality essential oil has more uses than just being used for recipes. It can help aid in digestion and it can also help with weight management. If you rub some on your wrists, or simply smell it straight from the bottle like I do, it can help curb those cravings that get in the way of a healthy diet!

Honestly, I didn’t do anything special, aside from adding the Dill Vitality oil and some dried dill, I just followed the recipe on the almond milk soup base box. I did use a vegan butter rather than a cow’s milk butter to make it vegan. As far as the Dill, I added 2 drops of oil and about a half of a tablespoon of dried dill right after I added the vegetable broth and let it simmer. Once that was done, I added the soup base and another drop of dill vitality oil. At the very end I used some dried dill for garnish. I paired the soup with a fresh garden salad and fresh homemade drop biscuits. The meal was almost fully vegan, I had to use cow’s milk butter in the biscuits because I didn’t have enough of my vegan butter…wah waaaah.

 

And now what you’ve been waiting for…the recipe!!

Creamy Potato Dill Soup

Ingredients:

  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 1/2 onion, finely chopped
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 4 russet potatoes, peeled and diced
  • 2 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1 cup vegetable broth
  • 2 1/2 cups unsweetened almond milk soup base
  • 3 drops Young Living Dill Vitality Essential Oil
  • Dried dill for seasoning and garnish

Directions:

  1. Melt butter in large pot. Add onion, salt and pepper. Cook for 2 min.
  2. Add potatoes and garlic. Cook 1 min.
  3. Add vegetable broth and 2 drops of Dill Vitality oil and dried dill. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 25 minutes.
  4. Mash potato mixture to desired consistency.
  5. Gradually stir in almond milk soup base and one more drop of Dill Vitality oil. Bring to a boil. Add salt and pepper to taste and dried dill for garnish.

The soup wasn’t perfect but it was easy and there is promise for a better version…I definitely find beauty in that!!!

Protein Pancakes with Juice Pulp

31 Wednesday Jan 2018

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A few years back I was introduced to protein pancakes. I know there are a lot of different versions but I really like this recipe and recently brought it back to life. There are just three main ingredients and then you can add more if you like.

This simple recipe calls for equal parts oats, egg whites (I use what I have on hand so full eggs it is), and cottage cheese.

I used to mix it all together and throw the cakes onto a heated griddle. But recently I decided to powder up my oats in my Cuisnart Portable Blender.

Once the oats are how I like them I add the eggs to the blender until mixed and then the cottage cheese. So simple! What’s even better is this recipe is easy to double!

Lately I’ve been juicing. A lot. I got into it years ago but recently got a used juicer for a great price and have been drinking at least one juice a day…I’m so proud of myself! With juicing comes pulp. I always feel guilty throwing it away. I might feel better if I had a compost, but I don’t. I started doing a little research on what to do with the pulp and low and behold, there is a ton you can do with it! I decided to throw it my protein pancakes.

The first round went great and everyone ate them up. They were a great consistency too! The second round this morning I was really nervous about. I added beets to my juice and when it came time to mix my batter with the pulp it turned bright red.

I was scared for a moment and thought “this didn’t happen yesterday!!??”…but duh, there were no beets in yesterday’s juice!!

However, I continued on to make 3 small cakes each for my little ones and 3 big cakes. One for myself and one each for the big kids. To my surprise, all the little ones gobbled them up, even though they were red!! (I’m sure it had everything to do with the taste of them and nothing at all to do with the little cups of syrup they had to dip into!! 😁) I was a happy momma!

They don’t look very pretty but they were good. I do think yesterdays batch came out better, consistency and flavor wise, but I would make the red cakes again. Like I said, the little ones ate them without complaint so I consider that a win!

I just love this recipe so much. It is easy, quick, and versatile. These pancakes can be made with just the three base ingredients, you can get crazy with add ins, and they can be savory or sweet!

Recipe:

1 cup oats

1 cup egg white or about 4 whole large eggs

1 cup cottage cheese

1-1 1/2 cups of juice pulp in medium sized bowl.

Add oats to a blender of your choice and powder them up. I like to use the pulse option because I have more control over the texture I end up with. Next, add eggs and pulse until blended together. Then add the cottage cheese and again, pulse until blended. Pour batter on top of pulp and hand mix. I like to add a little cinnamon at this point! Pour batter onto heater griddle and cook until done. Easy peasy!

Chocolate Banana Bread

29 Monday Jan 2018

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This post was first written in September of 2015 and has been sitting as a draft ever since…WHOOPS!!! A month after drafting this post I found out I was pregnant with my third child.  Not much writing, planning, or crafting was done during that time or the first year after my son was born! But I am happy to say that a few months ago I got back into the swing of crafting with much thanks to my dad and aunts.  They bought me my first Cricut for my 40th birthday and I have been addicted to it since! Now that I have found my groove with my crafts I am ready to find my groove with writing….again.

I am starting with this past draft because after reading it over I realized how valuable it could be to someone who is wanting to implement some healthy baking into their homes.  I love finding different ways to make things healthy and this is a reminder for me that I’m not half bad at doing so! My only regrets with this post is that I failed to take a picture of the bread after it was baked and I haven’t made the bread since. So without further ado, here is my post from over 2 years ago…

I’ve been wanting to write about cooking and meal planning for a while and today I was moved to plan, cook and write. Today I’m going to share how I found a recipe and made it my own and healthy. Just a warning, I’m no professional!!! I’m definitely an amateur but I enjoy sneaking healthy stuff into our diet (I should probably do it way more often than I do) and this time EVERYONE loved the bread and no one suspected how healthy it actually was.

Today I baked chocolate banana bread with my little daycare children. They were so cute and more than willing to help out…and gobble up the bread at snack time! I had pinned a recipe for chocolate banana bread on Pinterest a while ago, but never got to it. Honestly, who REALLY does??

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Here’s the original recipe: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/259942209718832824/

While I’m a huge fan of sweets and junk food I want to feed my kids healthy food. I’ve been motivated lately to do so even more because my son has been eating really bad and he’s an athlete. He’s a typical teenager though and grabs whatever is easy and convenient to eat. If he has to prepare anything, forget it. Of course, there is always room for improvement. I’m by no means Miss Susie Homemaker and even though I have really good intentions, I’m not that consistent. As I read over this recipe I immediately saw where I could make some adjustments and substitutions and got to work.

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First, I gathered all of my ingredients and supplies. It just makes the process a little bit easier for me!

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Second, I measured everything out. Doing this made it easier for the little ones to help, and shortened their wait time while helping.

I have to say, watching little kids get excited about cooking is really sweet. They really do love learning and soak it all up. At one point there was a bunch of coconut flour on the table and my little guy was swooshing it all around the table, smelling it and clapping his hands so the flour would fly through the air. My little girl enjoyed smelling all of the ingredients and rubbing brown sugar through her fingers. Not only did they get to learn and experience cooking, but they got a sensory activity out of it as well!

Okay, back to the recipe…I’m going to begin by saying that the ingredients I have pictured I happened to have at home already, I did not go out and buy anything special. Also, this was a total experiment and I was kind of nervous. Sometimes I’ll substitute one ingredient, this time I substituted 3 ingredients and left out 3…talk about living on the edge!!! The three things I left out were the vanilla extract, the chocolate chunks and the mini chocolate chips. I know, I know. I left out three of the most important things, but I didn’t have any on hand, but I felt confident that what I was putting in was going to make a good banana bread.

Here are my substitutions:

3 ripe bananas –> 2 ripe bananas = That’s what I had and it worked out great!

1/2 cup unsalted butter –> 1/2 cup applesauce = So much healthier than butter, still maintains the moisture and adds a serving of fruit.  I use Indian Summer applesauce because it’s the only one that I’ve found that doesn’t have high fructose corn syrup in it. (EDIT: there are now many brands that offer applesauce without high fructose corn syrup)

1 cup all purpose flour –> 1 cup coconut flour =

1/2 cup cocoa powder –> 1/2 cup of Ovaltine = Again, I had it on hand. (My kids love Ovaltine and use it after work outs instead of traditional chocolate syrup and I don’t feel as bad letting them have it on a regular basis) I figure why not add some vitamins while we’re at it!

Added 2 tbsp of Chia seeds –> Why not add a little bit protein and fiber!

I followed the recipe, just with my substitutions, and put it in the oven. It turned out great and we had no left overs!

See ya’ next time!